


Desperate Measures

by seokims



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-12
Updated: 2018-06-19
Packaged: 2019-05-21 13:19:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,511
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14916110
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seokims/pseuds/seokims
Summary: Being back on Earth for the paladins of Voltron is going to pose a few issues along the way. They're broke, haven't held a steady job in lord knows how long, oh and they get into more fights than ever before. You'd think the'd part ways after getting back to Earth, with their families and all. Wrong. None of them could live independently, it's kind of sad. Now, in order to keep up with a normal life again, they have to find jobs, get another education because the garrison refuses to take them back. And worst of all, discover themselves, there's drama and romance along the way and to be truthful, no one knows what it really means. Keith struggles with his conflicting emotions towards Lance. And Lance is as oblivious as ever. Everyone else seems to be able to sort things out pretty well, but damn these two can't get a grip on it. From awkward contact, to flirty phrases to trying to kill each other. It's all over the place, they're on a literal roller coaster of emotions that seems to have no end, so maybe they'll figure it all out in the end and maybe they wont. After all, desperate times call for desperate measures.





	1. One

Being back on the solid ground of the green planet, now foreign sights, smells and sounds flooding their senses, the paladins couldn’t help but look like, aliens. The time in which they spent traveling around and saving the universe or attempting to, was unmeasurable. The chattering voices of other humans was off-putting to the 5 as they wandered around aimlessly trying to figure out how to perhaps ‘fit in’ with the people of Earth once more. However, all acts seemed pointless since they all seemed more foreign than the actual foreigners in the airport.

   
“We're getting weird looks...." the shortest muttered, darting their eyes around hopefully trying to spot out a familiar face. No one else took notice of the comment, seeming as they were all conducting similar mannerisms.

  
The first to find a face that belonged to one of their own, was the lankly, blue, flirt himself, Lance McClain. It wasn't that hard for him though, considering how large his family is and frankly, how loud they are. As he ventured over to them, a relative around the age of 5, threw himself onto Lance's leg, gripping on for dear life. Letting out a laugh, he ruffled the toddler's hair and kept walking, child still clinging to him. The 4 remaining watched in awe as Lance reconnected with his family, but simultaneously still scouting out their own. Hunk was the next to split of, the almost teddy bear of a man, spotting his mother, father and younger sister not too far off. 3 remained. Edgy-ass, emo, most likely homosexual, Keith. Pidge, short and literally knows everything. And Shiro, the actual dad of the group, who delivers a solid bitch slap with the galra-tech arm of his. Minutes later, a short women resembling Pidge was spotted and they scurried off to reunite. 2. The only ones without anyone to embrace, Shiro having gone missing before the whole Voltron fiasco, was thought to be dead. No one thinks he's still alive, and Keith, with his father probably somewhere in the south, ignoring the existence of his son as usual. Keith looked around, he was standing alone, Shiro was gone and lord knows where that grown man went off to now. Breathing in and letting it all out in a long, depressed ridden sigh, he sat down, taking a look at the happiness of everyone else. He didn't understand where it all came from, maybe because he never had a family but what does that have to do with not knowing the happiness radiating off of others. He found himself contently looking at one family in particular. The McCLains.

  
There was something about the large group that just attracted attention. All happy, loud and strangest of all, getting along. Large families aren't usually that tight-knit but what else is to be expected of Lance's family, definitely nothing less. Leaning against the highly likely, germ covered, infected wall, Keith half smiled, filling with a warm feeling just watching the other boy laugh and smile and well, finally be himself.

   
“You like him," a deep voice whispered into Keith's ear, making him shiver. Jutting around, he realized it was Shiro, and blew him off, crossing his arms like the emo teenager he is.

   
“I do not," he muttered, rolling his eyes. With no response besides an 'are you shitting me right now' glance, he spun back around, once again finding himself fixated with the Cuban family. Only, this time, Lance McClain was staring right back at him. Now, the phrase 'red as a tomato' won't seem to work in this situation to describe the color of Keith's face, how about, as red as the red lion.

   
Quickly looking away, he began to walk in another direction, one to where he could get as far from Lance as possible. However, his attempts were stopped by a sudden grip on his wrist, craning his neck around, Keith saw that it was indeed the tall, lanky, handsome, Lance. Groaning, he tried to rip his arm away from the hold but ended in failure.

“So, couldn't get enough of me, could you," Lance winked. He was such a constant flirt, almost to the point where no one could tell if he wasn't flirting or not. It's bad.

“Of course not. I can't get enough of what's not you," Keith spoke harshly, soon realizing how that statement didn't sound as he expected. Lance fell silent, raising a brow, inquiring for more.“It's. It's not like that. I swear to god, I could live with out you! Now let go!" He pulled his arm out of Lance's grip and walked away, leaving him utterly dumbfounded as everyone else gathered around, being done with hellos and the first of goodbyes since returning. All eyes were on Lance who didn't know what to say, didn't know what to think. Everything happened so quickly yet not quick enough. Time is a strange mistress and well, he wished he'd be able to take back his statement that made Keith rush off like the grump he tends to be.

  
Taking in a deep breath, he finally spoke, "All I did was make a joke. I don't know why he got so pissed off.” Pidge slapped him on the back.  
“I don't think you were listening to Keith's response fully then, it hinted to something else," Shiro spoke now, taking on the dad role as always, "Maybe stop messing with people's emotions.”

 “What's that supposed to mean?”

  
“Lance!!" They all shouted his name, something that seemed to be constant now-a-days. He held his arms up in surrender, accepting that he was in the wrong when he'd thought he was just making a silly joke, guess everything is not as it seems.

 

“Now, we need to find Keith, and you're going to apologize," Shiro's stern dad voice was coming out now, Lance shot him a glance of disbelief and huffed, not willing to say anything back to him at this moment in time. However, everyone knew that when they found Keith, Lance was going to ignore that the whole situation had even happened and try to slither his way out of saying the words, I'm sorry.

 

 

 Keith had found himself out the front doors of the airport, leaning against a pole, the man refuses to sit down. The sky was dark and full of stars, the moon shining brightly. The others hurried out after them, scolding Lance for being an idiot when in fact he hadn't even been the one to do anything in this case. When they all spotted Keith, they fell quite as the night. Without even looking around, he knew they were there but didn't say anything directly to them.

 

“Strange, you always think space would be so much cooler than looking up at the night sky but goddamn have I forgotten how much more beautiful it looks from down here," He turned his head over his shoulder,”Don't you guys think the same?" No one spoke, but they all took their eyes and aimed them up at the sky. No one needed to speak, they all agreed with the statement plus the silence was calming, after how everything they'd been through had been so hectic.

 

Keith avoided Lance the rest of the time, whereas Lance was trying to grab the other's attention, strange how he had it not too long ago but threw it away so quickly. The man was determined though, that's something that can be said, but chasing Keith around the airport parking lot? It was a new low for him, but it seemed to be entertaining to everyone else, minus Shiro who was currently trying to get some type of transportation which was deemed impossible by the fact that all 5 are broke.

 

“Keithhhhhhhhhhhhh! Keeeeeeeeeith! Kkkkkkkkkkkkkkeeeith!!!!!" His voice got whinier and more like a 5 year old the more Keith ignored him, "Ke- Keith!" Now he was panting, more of a puppy but one Keith didn't want anything to do with.

 

“For crying out loud! Lo siento!" There was the Spanish heritage slipping out of him, he'd stopped running at this point, just glancing at Keith as he kept going, the way his body moved so naturally, that damn mullet blowing in the breeze. "Keith! Can't you hear me! Lo siento!" The other suddenly stopped running. Turning around, only to flip Lance the bird.

 

“Alright, so I guess you don't understand even the simplest of Spanish, I said I'm sorry!" His voice was strained and cracking, Keith was really working him to the bone just to apologize and hell, Lance hated it. He could see Keith shaking his head and turning around to walk closer to Lance. "Success," he muttered lowly.

 

“Look, Lance. I don't need an apology.”

 

“But I did something wrong.”

 

“Shut up! No you didn't it was my fault, now drop it please," Keith growled, shoving past Lance. Not so much of a success anymore but progress, and progress is leans towards success.

 

“Whatever you say, pretty boy.”


	2. Two

A long night. That is what they all had, and it wasn't even over. After, somehow managing to get a taxi, with the money they didn't have, they next had to find a place to stay and of course, still, no money! So how they ended up in this 3 star hotel for free? It's something no one wants to dwell on, let's just say some things were said and now they'd all be in debt to the receptionist, which they would one day have to pay. Not too bad, right? Wrong because no one wants to start off their life again being in debt to some lady they don't even know. However, the room wasn't that bad, if you considered one master bed, and two bunk beds not bad. The thing that stung the most was that Keith had to bunk with Lance, after everything that had happened and there was no way of getting out of it since, well they'd had to fight for who bunked with who. And that little bugger Pidge, somehow won, probably consisted of a lot of cheating, so here they all were now.

 

Awaking to a loud noise, Keith banged his head against the bunk above him, which instituted in him falling out of the bed and groaning in pain. The occupant of the upper bunk didn't seem to notice the other male's fall to the ground.

 

"What the hell was that?!" Keith hissed through the pain, not really paying attention to the fact of how late it was because soon Lance sprang upwards, banging his own head against the ceiling. This caused a laugh to find its way out of Keith's vocal cords into the air, which earned him a sharp glare from the other as he gripped the top of his head out of instinct.

 

"What are you shouting about this time?" Lance snapped, not breaking his gaze from the small framed Korean who still sat on the floor, still laughing at the man’s misfortune.

 

"Did you not hear that fucking loud crash?" he replied, after his laughing fit died down, holding back yet another due to how stupid Lance currently looked. Correction. How much stupider Lance looked than normal

 

"No I didn't,"he groaned,"It's 1 AM. This entire conversation is ludicrous, go back to sleep." Lance threw his head back down on the flat pillow atop his worn down mattress.

 

“This is no conversation, it's me stating the obvious but it seems you're too deaf after all that snoring you've done," Keith shot back, rolling his eyes before standing up and ducking back under to his own bed, "But I guess I'll obey your orders, sire." Only, he couldn't fall back asleep, because the noise continued, droning on like a laundry machine in the night.

 

"Probably from the other room," he whispered with much distaste, turning onto his back so that he was now staring blankly at the underside of Lance's mattress. He thought for a bit, wondering what would happen if he just, punched it. Sure, it would hurt like hell, he wanted to see what Lance would do in return.

 

WHAM!

 

Yes, the punch did end up hurting his hand, however the sudden jerk in motion had extorted a slight irritated sound from Lance's mouth. Seconds later, Lance's upside down scowl was in Keith's view. Keith stared back, giving the 'what did I do' type of look.

 

"You're a bitch. I hope you know that," Lance spat before returning to his spot above, clearly not noticing the devilish smile that took form on Keith's face.

 

"I know...." he muttered, before closing his eyes, the smile still on his face, drifting slowly off to sleep, guess messing with Lance was the only cure to get him to sleep, so Keith decided it would become a nightly occurrence, but each night would be something new. Maybe something worse than the night before.

 

“Keith, buddy. Wake up," it was Lance, his voice hinted at the fact that he was planning something, something to get back at Keith for waking him up and for punching the bottom of his mattress.“Keithhhhhhhh!" He shook him gently, clearly trying to seem nice about it, nothing worked. He took a moment to examine the sleeping figure, he found him less hostile and somewhat... cute? Ha, no. No way would the Lance McClain think Keith Kogane of all people was cute, it's insufferable. And that is exactly the reason why he threw being kind and caring aside, it's Keith he's dealing with so he took in a deep breath and prepared to screech like none before.

 

“WAKE THE HELL UP!” Lance violently shook the male now, "THIS IS NOT A DRILL! THE ROOM IS ON FIRE!” he noticed Keith move slightly, swatting away at Lance.“Son of a bitch.....”

 

Minutes later, he came back with a bucket, what better way to get Keith out of bed, than to splash him with water.

 

SPLUSH!

 

“LANCE!" He'd done it, he really had. He'd woken the beast and was he happy with himself? Why don't you ask the large smirk plastered on the man's face.

 

“What? I said there was a fire and well, it spread to you. I was saving your ass." A flawless lie, one that would probably be found out later but lets live in the moment, don't think about consequences.

 

“There was no fire. You're just an asshole!" Keith threw himself out of bed, directly at Lance,”I'm actually going to kill you. Yeah. I will, after all the times I haven't been able to, oh boy." His face was painted with rage, and Lance was on the other end of that rage.

 

“You won't kill me,” He snorted feeling awfully too confident, to the point that it was scary. No one ever held their ground against Keith, how the hell do you think they defeated Zarkon? Yeah, with Keith's fiery temper. So maybe it would have been best to back down at this point, but Lance didn't know such a thing.

 

“Big. Fucking. Bet!" Keith outstretched his arms to grip the collar of Lance's shirt, blinded by rage clearly not noticing Lance did not have on a shirt, as of a sleeping habit especially when it was insanely hot. So instead of a fist full of cotton cloth, he got Lance's tan, freckled skin. The rage was gone, now being taken over by a new emotion, embarrassment? Who knew but Keith could sure feel a different heat raising in his cheeks, taking one look at where his hand had landed and then back up at Lance.

 

“Keith, mind taking your hand off of me? Normally I'd be down for something like this but with you?" Lance joked, being the most oblivious person on the planet. Scratch that. In the universe. Keith shook his head, snapping back into the reality of things, ripping his hand right off of Lance's chest, all heat in his body suddenly gone. Then silence ensued. Neither wanted to say anything about what had just happened, but it would come up eventually, right?

 

Realizing he was drenched in water, after lord knows how many minutes, Keith shoved past Lance looking for a dry set of clothing. Still, nothing was said between the two, out of awkwardness or maybe fear. However, Lance stood there, watching the other's movements, trying to tap into what made him the way he was but all thoughts of that were gone as he saw Keith begin to peel his shirt off himself. He watched the way the muscles moved so naturally, and noticed how sculpted they were. He noticed how his shoulder blades popped out just right, and how smoothly he pulled the shirt over his head. Lance was in a trance and he wasn't sure if there was any way out of it. The alarms began blaring in his mind, none of this was okay, these were not thoughts he was supposed to be having. This was Keith he was staring at gods sake and admiring the man he hated so much for no reason, none the less. He was shocked, not sure what else to think. Not sure what to do, until his mouth decided to make that very decision itself.

 

“Keith!" Lance screeched, turning away, looking for something else to focus on, anything at all. Anything but the man who currently stood in the same room as he.

 

“The hell is it now?" Keith craned his neck to catch a glimpse of Lance before realizing, he was undressing in front of Lance of all people and suddenly the heat came rushing back," Fuck! No. No way. Lance I swear to god!”

 

“Just get out!" Lance shouted, still not paying attention,”I'll respect your privacy but dear lord not when you begin to strip right in front of my virgin eyes!”

 

Keith huffed, gathering his things and rushing out of the room. Before exiting however, he had one last remark,”Virgin eyes. My ass.”


	3. Chapter 3

   Afterwards, the morning seemed to pass with no further issues. After changing, Keith found himself back in the shared bedroom spotting Lance passed out, not on his own bed but in Keith’s. He groaned, assessing the situation but sadly, there was no way to get around it so he settled down on the floor with his phone. He of course, being Keith, took a few pictures of Lance, for blackmail purposes, that’s all they were for, especially after the stunt the jackass had pulled half an hour ago. All his anger towards the boy seemed to fade when he finally focused on him in a sleeping state, he looked so.... love-able?

 

        “You're not allowed to think that way," Keith hissed, hitting his head gently against the wall as if to relinquish the absurd thought from his mind. There was no time to think of anything like that, yet there was also all the time in the world. Keith found himself lost in his thoughts, when suddenly the words Shiro had spoken came rushing back.

 

 

        _You like him._

 

 

        "I do not!" He shouted, clamping his hands over his mouth, realizing that a, it was 6:30 in the morning and b, Lance was trying to sleep. And unlike some people, he respected that. So there Keith sat, thoughts running amuck through his head, trying to tell him something or get him to do some type of action but he ignored it. Instead, he was fixated on Lance, the one thing in his life that seemed to be so unpredictable yet so easy to predicate at the same time. None of it made any sense at all, and Keith wanted to figure out every last thing about the man.

 

 

 

        "Keith?” Lance poked him, turning his head to the side. Examining him if you could say. It was currently 8:00 AM. A time Lance didn't want to be awake at but after discovering himself in Keith's  bed and Keith sitting on the floor passed out, he decided it was finally time to get a start on the day. As of now, he was trying to wake the other up without resorting to the bucket of water trick he'd used just hours before.

 

        “Keeeeeeeeeeithhhhhhhhhhh,”he poked the boy again, noting the groan that emitted from Keith's lungs, so clearly he was awake, "Time to wake up!" He poked him again.

 

         _SMACK!_

 

        A red hand mark was now on Lance's face, he'd been bitch slapped. And rightfully so, he seems to be waking Keith up a lot lately, "To hell with you!" He screeched backing away from Keith, he didn't need to be slapped again any time soon.

 

        “To hell with me?”Keith's voice was cold and harsh yet also had that weird affect that sleeping does, you know, the making your voice deeper when you first wake up thing, "To hell with you. You're the son of a bitch who doesn't respect anyone!”

 

        "Gosh! I was just trying to be nice!" His tone sounding  defensive, "But whatever, we're having breakfast in the hotel if you wish to join, grumps.”

 

 

 

        Keith found himself in the lobby minutes later, looking like a grump, not just feeling like one anymore and well, the others sure as hell took notice, something they'd picked up on during their time in space. Their first reaction? Turning all eyes to Lance because of course he was the one who caused this to happen, who else would.

 

        "He's more pissed than usual...." Pidge whispered, "What the hell did you do this time Lance?"

 

        Lance looked over at the nonbinary human, a confused look on his face, "What makes you think I did something. And what do you mean by this time?"

 

        They rolled their eyes, "There is a reason I said this time.  But that is besides the point. The point is, what did you do to make Keith so pissed this morning, clearly you are the only one who could have done something, seeing as you were bunking together."

 

        Keith, having just taken his seat at the table, waffles in hand, well on a plate but you get it, couldn't help but notice how the conversation was on him. Usually people stop talking about someone when they enter the room, however these four  have  no sense of what was right or wrong.

        "I did nothing," Lance proclaimed in a loud voice, "It's not my fault that mister _pretty boy_ is so emo and so edgy and not able to deal with the rest of us!" he emphasized saying pretty boy  clearly trying to get Keith's attention at this point, not caring if he'd probably be on the other end of a sword soon.

 

        And,  it worked, because Keith slammed his fist against the table, "What the fuck did you just call me Lance,"  the male's name came off his tongue with poison. The rest of the table went silent, Shiro with a very disappointed expression and the other two, just waiting for a fight to go down.

 

        "Which one? I called you two things. Was it emo or pretty boy? I think it  was the pretty boy comment. Am I right, or am I right?" He replied nonchalantly as if Keith wasn't about to rip his throat out.

 

        Keith was now gripping the edge of the table trying to get his anger out some other way than punching Lance, his knuckles a ghostly white, "Shut. The. Fuck. Up."

 

        "Why should I do that?Is the pretty boy angry ? Is he going to punch me?"

 

        Lance surely did call it correctly, who knew he was a physic, because the next thing that happened was Keith's fist connected with Lance's face, and man did it leave a nice mark, one to compliment the hand print from earlier. Lance just kind of sat there in shock, like he'd  expected that to happen but not so soon, the pain wasn’t even registering yet. 

 

        "Is he embarrassed or outraged? The fact that his face is pure red right now could point to either," Pidge stated with a push upwards of their  glasses, "And maybe the punch means he's outraged, but, why the red face?"

 

         Keith jutted his head around to Pidge,"Wait. What did you just say...."

 

        "Your  Face. Is. Pure. Red. Like, you know. A tomato. Why is that?"

 

        He went silent glancing back at Lance, who was some how still in his own seat looking mighty pissed off about being punched, then back at Pidge, then to Lance again.

 

        "Um... Keith?" Lance suddenly said,"You okay? You don't normally look at me this often, unless you've finally realized how beautiful I am."

 

        "Lance is right Keith, minus the last part of what he said, that's clearly not true. This is clearly not normal, is there something none of us here know or-"

 

        "It's nothing. Nothing at all. And I assure you. My face is not red," Keith cut them off, looking them straight in the eye, to maybe show he wasn't lying. Which he was. There was no way that lie would change the fact that he's a raging homosexual.

        That's when Lance's laugh broke out, yes he was still pissed off but he'd take any opportunity to call out Keith, "Keith. Don't lie to us, we can all clearly see, you're face is red as hell. Heck. Red as that lion of yours."

 

        Lance's statement just seemed to make the heat radiating off of the male's face burn even more, Lance sure did have a way with Keith, "I hate you..." he muttered, ”Not just Lance, all of you right now” His voice was almost death strickening as he stood up, shoving his chair aside and rushing back to the room without any last looks.

 

        "Any one else find what just happened like, really weird?" Hunk chimed in, having just now registered what had happened, Shiro however, stayed silent and simply put his head down in disappointment,  _classic Keith....._  He knew something that the other's didn't and he wasn't going to let onto that.

 

        "Seriously though, "Pidge turned back to Lance completely ignoring the fact Keith had just stormed off, "What the actual hell did you do to make him react in such a way? Like damn Lance, that's the worst he's been in a while."

 

        Lance hadn't exactly heard what Pidge said, he was too busy staring in the direction Keith had went, "Huh? What was that?"

 

        They rolled their eyes, "I'm saying it one more time. What did you do, that made him such a piss-ass this morning?"

 

        "Oh that,"He took a moment to think of if he wanted to relay the entire story to them, "What happened was, first I woke him up using a bucket of water under the hoax that the room was on fire,”his voice cut out, he was muttering about the way Keith looked now, "But yeah that ended well, I guess?”

 

        “Look, Lance,”Shiro started the statement but Hunk and Pidge finished, all their minds seeming to be linked,”You're an idiot!”


End file.
